It is known to prepare candy and pharmaceutical products in edible unit dosage form containing various combinations of ingredients to achieve particular characteristics. Generally, the combination of ingredients are premixed and then prepared in the desired form. In other instances, one or several of the ingredients will be covered with other ingredients to provide a two component dosage unit where the cover is used to delay the release of the covered ingredients in the mouth or digestive tract. State of the art, conventional tabletting equipment has also been used to prepare tablets containing various combinations of ingredients in single or multiple-layer tablet form. When multiple-layer tablets are formed, and it is desired to maintain the ingredients in separate layers, identification of this fact and of the distinct components is typically achieved by visual means, such as by adding different colored dyes. Candy flavoring or small amounts of topical additives having distinct organoleptic characteristics has also been used to achieve certain taste or flavor perception characteristics while the tablet is in the mouth. Frequently, this is done to mask undesirable taste characteristics of a drug being ingested, or to indicate some other distinct organoleptic characteristics.
Thus, there have been products made or suggested in the prior art containing combinations of ingredients in tablet or candy form, and even multiple-layer tablets with layers containing different compositions having means for visually distinguishing the same. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no tablet or candy products wherein different solid or particulate ingredients are distinct and identifiable by the user as they are being ingested; nor are there multiple-layer tablets containing a combination of at least 2 different ingredients wherein each of said ingredients is in a separate layer suitable as a vehicle for other additives, including pharmaceuticals, medications, flavorings and the like, and which exhibit distinct and identifiable organoleptic characteristics until they are totally consumed.